Robert Lowrey remembers piano stores lining each side of Yonge Street from Sheppard to Finch.
“In the ‘80s there were at least 40 or 50 piano businesses in the Greater Toronto Area,” he said.
Today, Mr. Lowrey, the owner of Robert Lowrey Piano Experts, could think of only eight major retailers and a handful of smaller restoration shops left.

Apple has ramped up its hiring of artificial intelligence experts, recruiting from PhD programs, posting dozens of job listings and greatly increasing the size of its AI staff, a review of hiring sites suggests and numerous sources confirm. The goal is to challenge Google in an area the Internet search giant has long dominated: smartphone features that give users what they want before they ask.

In some cases, brick and mortar stores might be heading towards obsolescence, but the biggest argument in favor of brick and mortar stores has always been that it allows customers to interact with store staff on the spot and get immediate feedback and support regarding the products they purchase. However, online transactions are increasing fast and many players are looking forward to make the experience as real and effective as possible.

Google and Apple could sever their search collaboration this year, when the long term default search agreement between the two comes to an end. The agreement made Google Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) the default search option on Apple Inc.'s (NASDAQ:AAPL) popular Safari browser.

Apple and Samsung are two companies in the rather intriguing position of being rivals and partners, even for similar products. Samsung landed the much-coveted position of being one of Apple’s key accounts in terms of manufacturing and supplying the A9 chips for the iPhone and iPad.